Like many five year old girls, my daughter wanted a Disney princess party for her fifth birthday.

INVITATIONS: I started by designing the invitations, which were created in powerpoint. I copied pictures of the Disney princesses from the Internet and altered them to create a picture frame of princesses with the invitation wording in the center. The words said: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The King and Queen cordially invite Princess (girl's name) to the (our name) castle to celebrate Princess Allison's 5th birthday. The royal celebration will begin at 3:45 in the afternoon on Saturday, May 6th and will end by 6:00 in the evening. The King and Queen ask that you come dressed in princess or other royal attire. Upon your arrival each princess will be crowned and adorned with jewels. There will be royal beauty treatments, games and crafts. The excitement will be heightened by the royal tea party, ball and pinata joust. Please respond to the Queen mom if you plan to attend. I then outlined around the words with silver glitter glue. Each invitation looked beautiful. We rolled them into a scroll, sealed them with hot wax and tied them with a ribbon. We hand delivered those that we could and the rest we were able to fit in envelopes and mail.

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: On the day of the party I had my six year old son dressed in a black vest with gold trim that my mom made and a trumpet, and as each guest arrived he blew the trumpet and announced that Princess so and so had arrived. The guests (who were each wearing a Disney princess dress) entered the castle (my house) to find a beautiful treasure chest (toy chest covered in pink plastic) to put their presents for the princess in.

1) Princess Allison (the birthday girl) greeted each princess by letting her pick a plastic bracelet from a princess jewelry box that she had.

2) The princesses were then led into the family room where blankets were covering the floor, and the girls were given foam crowns and foam wands to decorate. I had bowls with stick-on-jewels for the girls to use and each girl received a bag with self-stick foam letters that spelled her name. I have found that it is easier to do this ahead of time otherwise you spend the whole time trying to help the girls find the letters for their name. Stick-on-jewels are becoming more difficult to find although Hobby Lobby still carries them. This allowed everyone a chance to arrive and finish decorating her crown and wand. The crowns were four different colors, which I then used to divide the approximately 20 girls into four different groups later in the party.

3) My mother arrived on the balcony of our family room as the fairy godmother. She was wearing her mother of the bride dress, which was pink, as well as a wand, and she had spray painted her hair silver. She began talking to the girls and asked them if they were real princesses. She said there was a game they could play so she could determine if they were real princesses. The game related to the story of the princess and the pea. My mom had made small pink satin pillows and we taped bouncy balls underneath some of them. The girls sat in a circle and similar to musical chairs they went round and round the circle until the music stopped trying to sit on a pink pillow. If they were sitting on one and could feel the ball we told them they were a real princess and could come get a picture in front of the cardboard castle (Birthday Express). The pictures were later used in the thank you cards. We continued to play until each girl had sat on a ball and had her picture taken..

4) My mom then asked how the princesses were getting to the banquet and ball. They kind of looked at one another and said they didn't know. She said that she had a pumpkin and maybe they could use that for a carriage. The pumpkin was actually a plastic pumpkin trick or treat bucket. At that moment, she opened the door to our house and a horse and white carriage were coming down the street. While the girls all ran out to the front yard, I quickly hid the pumpkin. They were all yelling and squealing with excitement. My daughter asked me if it was real.

After the party, she made me tell her that the pumpkin really didn't turn into the carriage. I had surprised her with the horse and carriage and she was ecstatic. I split them into groups and each group of approx. 5 girls rode in the carriage with my mom, the fairy godmother. While one group was riding in the carriage, the other three groups went down in the basement for an assortment of 5 activities.

5) I had one station with princess mirrors, I bought at Michaels and items for them to decorate these with, including bows and rhinestone letters.

6) I had one station with foam princess purses and foam stick-on flowers

7) I had one station with my daughter's princess vanity and some make-up and nail polish. They really enjoyed sitting at the vanity and applying some make-up themselves. A couple moms helped paint the girls nails, which was a huge help.

8) I had one station for the girls to make body glitter. I had a neighborhood teenager help each of the girls to mix the ingredients I found on-line and put their concoction in a little small plastic container with their name on it.

9) At the last minute I added a coloring station, which was very popular. I had a plastic easel that I clipped princess coloring pages to for the girl's to color. Many girls ended up coloring on the floor because there wasn't enough room at the easel. This worked out really well as they had lots to do while they waited for their ride on the horse and carriage.

10) At the end of the party, there was a princess pinata that girls took turns pulling a string to let the candy out. Each girl had a bag to put their candy in, but I always leave candy out, so I can throw it to the girls who aren't comfortable fighting for it or who don't get any. 11) The last thing we did was to have the princess ball, I turned on music for the girls to dance to and my father and son threw pink balloons off of our balcony. The girls loved this and when their parents came, they didn't want to leave.

DECORATIONS: After the carriage rides, we took them into the banquet hall (our dining room). I had borrowed children's tables and chairs from neighbors and friends and had them laid out diagonally in the dining room. All the dining room furniture was moved into the living room. The tables were covered with pink plastic from the party store. The chairs were covered with pink plastic and tied with pink tulle. I bought small silk pink flower arrangements at the party store and these were the centerpieces. I then borrowed as many of the plastic Disney princess dishes that come in the teapot, as I could find from friends and set the table with these dishes. The stairway was covered in pink tulle. The dining room looked amazing. Parents thought I had a professional come in and decorate. The children felt so special eating off the plastic tea set dishes.

SNACKS/CAKE: I had made a castle cake using cake, ice cream cones and lots of icing that was sitting on a small table in the dining room as well. I created little flags out of paper and toothpicks that said Happy Birthday Allison that were on each tower of the cake. Each girl had a plastic champagne glass that we poured pink lemonade in and they toasted the birthday girl. Then we served them heart shaped sandwiches (peanut butter, turkey), fruit on plastic swords (grapes, cantaloupe), chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered strawberries. The cake was served after my daughter blew out the candles.

FAVORS: As each princess left, they were given a small fabric princess bag I had found from Oriental Trading. I used a paint pen to write each girl's name on the fabric bag. Inside we filled them with princess goodies like a princess pen, paper, and jewelry. I sent thank you notes on the same princess paper I had created for the invitations. Each letter had a picture of the princess either in front of the castle or on the horse and carriage that my husband took and downloaded onto the thank you note. It was a fabulous party!